


Astrophilia

by trucellent



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Gen, Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 11:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21196601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trucellent/pseuds/trucellent
Summary: As an ambitious astro-scientist with a degree in extraterrestrial biology, trained within the walls and machines of Galaxy Garrison Charlène Astride Richerlieu found herself fond of a special, young space shuttle pilot named Takashi Shirogane with whom she shared many good and bad moments off and on missions. As the time flew by their interest in each other grew bigger finally tangling them with supposedly unbreakable desire. However, things rarely go according to plans and her own image of the future was crushed by harsh reality to which both of them need to assimilate quickly to survive. But will they be able to do that?Actions, adventures, horrors of the unknown and burning desire of this space opera will hopefully swallow you whole and give you pleasure from reading it!





	Astrophilia

Sssswish. The decompression of the air in-between her helmet and the surrounding of a space capsule used to make her nervous as thoughts of horrible accidents and mistakes that could be made within these long minutes of waiting rushed through her head. Just small error in the levels of pressure could smash this small room like a thin can and throw Richerlieu into the vacuum with no air to breath and no chance of surviving. But that was before. Long time ago when she was just a cadet, first-time space walking.

Nowadays Charlene’ve grown so used to it that she doesn’t even hear it. Her mind is already occupied by many other tasks that need to be done on the Moon’s Space Station before she will get to even eat her dinner. One of which was making her even slightly impatient during the opening of all the air locks and door before she could get out of her space suit and rush to the cabin.

She hoped he was waiting. He usually waited. He better waited.

L i e u t e n a n t C h a r l è n e A s t r i d e R i c h e r l i e u c r e d i t s a c t i v a t e d

C o n n e c t i o n v e r i f i e d.

GG ’ s I n t e r c o m m u n i c a t i o n S y s t e m a c c e s s g r a n t e d 

L i e u t e n a n t S h i r o g a n e s t a t u s : O N L I N E

D i a l i n g . . .

“Hi there” she purred with a smile on her face in a second she saw him on the screen. “I’m sorry I’m late again. Excavations and tests got really problematic recently since two of our bots broke down probably of all the space dirt getting in. I have hands full of work now and no time to even get some decent sle…”, she started cheerily but soon her smile dropped down when Charlene noticed Shiro’s not so happy expression. “...ep. Something happened?”

“...” he was reluctant to speak and look at her for a little while. Then sighed heavily. “Iverson thinks I shouldn’t be part of the mission. Admiral Sanda showed up, and tried to convince Sam to remove me from the crew.”

“Wait… the mission to Kerberos? I thought you were already restricted to on Earth tasks.”

“Technically I am, but this mission is way more important than any other. They need me there.”

“But it’s going to take years and you’re putting your life at risk, Takashi. Not to mention that the start of it is waaay before my come back from this mission. You forgot?”

The look on his face told Charlene he didn’t forget. They both were well aware of what that meant, but she couldn’t just simply nod to this.

“You know it’s something I need to do for myself, Charlène. It’s my last chance.”, he finally looked into her eyes with pure determination.

“Your last chance? What are you talking about? Didn’t you broke all the records and showed everyone of what you are capable of? Wasn’t that enough to feed your ego?”

“It’s not about my ego, Char, and you of all the people know that the best!” the annoyance in his voice made her realise that there was no way of turning him back. His mind was made. The rest was just the formality. “I don’t need to listen to your lecture about this all over again.”

After that sentence sunking, heavy silence filled the connection and both of them felt even more far away from each other than usual. He was slipping through her fingers. Drifting away so far that she was losing grasp of him and this feeling scared her. Scared and irritated all at the same time.

“So that’s it?”, Charlene said through with a crackling voice, gritting her teeth with anger. “That’s a form of goodbye you were wishing to say?”

Shiro was taken a little bit by surprise. He didn’t expect this reaction from her and suddenly he felt slightly guilty of how he treated her seconds ago. “I didn’t mean to…”

“Well, job well done Lieutenant Shirogane! You are truly talented in finishing things quickly.”, the icy needle of Richerlieu's cold voice well aimed into the painful spot in his heart.

“Ch-Charlène, wait…”, he tried to put the fire out but it was too late.

“Wait? Why should I? You would never wait for me as you just proved it. I guess the last thing to say is good luck on your very important mission. Hope you will spend the rest of your days really, really, reaally enjoying your time in the endless, dark vacuum. Guess I don’t need to hold onto that ring as well, do I?”. She took out an elegant, minimalistic piece of jewelry from underneath her t-shirt where it was safely hanging as the necklace. Slim circle of white gold with rectangular onyx stone. “I will just throw it into the space where you two belong!”

C a l l e n d e d.  
...and with that she was left with regular sounds of the station filling the silence along with her heavy breathing. Something was painfully burning in her chest. She took off the necklace to look at the engagement ring in her hands. Memories of that special day flashed in front of her, shiverring as she re-lived thess moments. Everything seemed to go well until now. They both had their own ambitions but they kinda worked it out, haven’t them? Nothing was supposed to get in the way of that, but she never expected that the danger will come from within. Slowly Richerlieu's vision got blurred as hot tears of frustration flooded her lids.

So this was the end? This is how it all ends? Seriously?

… unfortunately none of them knew that it was merely the beginning of something new.

Anger didn't left Charli for a while. No, it actually risen with every silent minute she took to put herrself together. Frustration was followed by irritation, a rage that could not be simply ignored. Resentment.

Sadness didn’t really matter at this point. Loneliness, the feel of loss - none of this was powerful enough to benumb the fury of her mind. He dared to leave her just like that. To put her on the shelve of his many trophies as another victory. A record, achievement like many other scratched from the list to simply move on onto next mission. New challenge. New prize.

Charlene couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t help but feel so used and so useless at the same time. Wasn't she exciting enough? Too boring for the youngest space pilot in the history? These thoughts were horribly devastating. Humiliating even. However there was nothing to do with it. No public to prove herself to. No witnesses to persuade. Nothing to show him how furious she were. Most importantly no time to truly think about it. Work was waiting and it was saviour of her mind as well as a torturer.

“One of our Seedras, in Node 5, has been giving us some issues to deal with lately”

“They’re shutting again?”

“Yup. Gummed up with zeolite and stick in the wrong position.”

“Goodness, are they ever going to at least try creating a hardware that doesn’t need to be repaired every other week?” Two tiny pieces of an airlock hardware didn’t snapped into one another. Again. She grunted.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.” Deep exhale was supposed to calm the boiling blood within Charlene's veins but it ended up being another pointless action.

“You seem rather… irritated” Luther, one of her comrades, was giving her a worried look. Nursing, she could say.

“Wouldn’t you be?” Her eyebrows risen as she pointed restlessly at the broken hardware.

Young officer looked at the piece of junk causing the struggle, at Rciherlieu, at hardware again and back at her. “You were troubled way before this repair started to be a challenge, Charlène.”

Making eye contact with him was too much of an effort for her. Getting back to snapping these small bastards.

“Maybe. It doesn’t even matter, Luther, as long as I will get this done.”

“It does matter.” He protested narrowing his eyes. “We’re going to be in this tiny spacecraft, together, for another two months and you know that team needs to know if anything is happening because none of us wants to deal with possible dark scenario after trust and fellowship is ruined. So you better talk or we will stay here for longer than you can imagine.”

sssnaap.... snap...click… No snap.

“Charlène.” Persistent.

Another try.

“Let me guess. Since it’s weekend and until break time you acted normally, that means something must have happened during usual ‘calls to family’.”

Almost there. Just tiny bit more. Focus.

“You don’t talk often with your siblings so this definitely has something to do with these two dudes. Adam aaand what was the famous guy name again...?”

SNAP

Her eyes were wide open and shock painted her face.

“Shirogane! That’s right! Whoever you’re dating - one of them pissed you, am I right?”

Luther sounded like he was talking in completely other room. His voice was muffled and distorted while her brain went into quick panic mode ringing alarms and throwing insults at herself.

In all the rage and hot-boiled rashness she completely forgot of the second half. Or third... in this case. The other complice in their victimless, little crime. 

“Adam…” Her silent whisper passed unnoticed. Yet her mind was screaming inside. Frustration was even bigger now than before since she knew she couldn’t just leave her, well... actual workplace, and rush over to her CQ to call Adam. Duties. Damn duties always come first.

“Silence, huh? I will take it as a yes then, but you need to remember, Charlène, that your on a mission. No love affair can get in the way of staying focused on your tasks, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir!” Now she was the guilty one.

“Oh… wow, that’s a… quick change of attitude.”

“I’m not some naive teenage girl that’s getting through her breakup for the first time.” Was she explaining herself to Luther, or to herself? “You’re right. I should never let my emotions cloud my mind in times like this. I’m sorry. That won’t happen again.”

And with that her penance begun. She had to wait whole week before she could contact Adam. To call him, to be precise, because the matters to discuss were too precious and too important to just write about them. Besides, he wasn’t really sending her any emails anyway. 

Working on Moon’s Space Station was like working on Earth. Just a little bit more extreme… With your life being threaten every now and then… But other than that it was a lot like working in Galaxy Garisson on steady ground. Richerlieu had time to work and time to relax. 

Every 8-9 hours of a day were filled with inspections, tests, repairs, standard walkthroughs or sampling that she was doing meticulously in order to keep her mind occupied. But it was exhausting. So exhausting to not let her emotions out. To feel everything boiling inside like the core of the planet or sun. Maybe that’s how Red Giants feel being at the verge of exploding? So fed up with everything bursting inside that they wish they could just explode to become a Super Nova. Or implode. Collapse within themselves as Neutron Stars do. At last she would stop feeling so terribly debilitated.

“Oh, Adam.” The relief in her tired voice worried him.

“Charlie?”

“S-Sorry, I… It was a tiring week that’s all. I’m glad to see you, Captain. “ That… sounded official.

“Yes…” A succinct, cautious answer followed by a long silence. They both were analyzing what to say next. God, are all conversations going to be so… strange now?

“I guess-”

“Did you-”

They both started at the same time. How lovely.

“You can start-”

“Go ahead-”

And again. The sigh of frustration left her lips. Adam gave Charlene a faint smile, which quickly give in to a bitter grimace.

“I broke up with-”

“Shiro broke up with-”

Their timing started to be rather creepy than funny. She tensed all her muscles straightening in the sit. Adam, on the other side, leaned closer to camera adjusting his glasses with a slight disbelief. As if his accessory was the cause of interference. “What?”

“Takashi told me about Kerberos mission and... “ Her mouth become dry all of a sudden. “...and somehow we ended up saying goodbye to each other. Well, I did.” The needle she has hurt Shiro with apparently came back to pierce her chest this time. 

Damn, it hurt.

“Oh… so you too?” Adam didn’t look surprised at all. Rather irked.

“You… too?”

“You didn’t think I will be, yet again, standing in the backstage of Takashi’s idea and applauding his decisions?”

“Well… not exactly but…”

“Charlie, “ He interrupted with a sigh of exhaustion. Like he was going over the same conversation for a hundredth time. “I’m tired of being always… there for him. I’m actually tired of him. I can’t do this anymore. Knowing that instead of me... Instead of us, he chooses to spent his last years risking his life in the mission, he believes is more important than our relationship is just… unbelievable!”

Now Adam was the one spilling the anger that she couldn’t over the last week. “You’re so… right…” However, relief didn’t come. Instead, Charlene was finally feeling heartbroken. Stomach tightened into a knot. Her chest sunk into the abyss.

“I understand how you can feel right now, Charlène. We’re technically in the same situations taking into consideration the status of our… partnership.”

She was about to fall over the edge of grief, but something hooked her last minute to save her. “At least that didn’t change.” She said with a gentle smile.

“What didn’t change?”

“The way you get nervous when it comes to talking about our trio.” Charlene gave Adam a warm look straight into his brown eyes. Pink shade covered his cheeks as he leaned back in his seat, disconnecting his eyes from her gaze.

“It’s a… rather sophisticated… topic”

Wise choice of wording.

“Wouldn’t be if there was only you and Takashi.” She rested her chin on her hand dreamily looking in the distance. “Or just me and Takashi.”

“Hah, like if you could stand a chance against me.”

Mischievous smirk twisted her lips. Lips that were rather mesmerizing, he had to agree with that. Cadet’s instructor couldn’t really pinpoint an exact reason of why she was able to somehow squeeze into his mind apart from Shiro. There was something about her he could never figure out. What he was certain is that without Richerlieu's presence, especially now, he felt lonely. Truly lonely.

Garrison’s “Bright Star” wasn’t in the picture anymore which left him with a surprisingly loads of time in daily schedules to do… nothing particular. So he trained. Trying to erase him from memories. Focusing on routine and discipline. But even though he prepared for leaving Shiro, he completely forgot about Charlene. He didn’t think what to do with her as… just two of them.

“I hate our situation”, he exhaled again. Tired.

“Well, there is plenty to hate… and it is heartbreaking.”

“No, I mean the thing we’re in. This crazy love triangle we got ourselves into. How did I even ended up here?” Grunt of irritation left his lips as Adam buried face in hands. Futile.

“Oh, Adam.” She wished she could be there. To touch him. To comfort him. And comfort herself. “You’re not the only one being frustrated.”

“Really? It always looked like you two were surprisingly comfortable in this ‘composition’ since the very beginning. I was the only one who was against it.”

“That’s true. You were rather malevolent at first…”

“Rather…”

“But it all worked out, Adam! At least it worked until now… We’re going to get through this. I promise.”

“You sound like him right now.” Sadness striked through his tone. He was hurt. Both of them were.

“Adam. We both loved Shiro... and he’s gone now. But we are still here. We still have each other. I cannot speak for you but my feelings toward you didn’t change. I still love you as much… and I miss you.” The cold, smooth surface of a screen stinged Charlene fingers. They couldn’t touch him, but he noticed the warm gesture. The smile rising on her face. Painful smile of someone deeply hurt, yet still hopeful. “If you also decide to go your own path I won’t stop you, though it will be painful.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about-”

“I’m not like Takashi.” He protested fiercely. “I wouldn’t leave you alone, floating in space for a pointless mission just two months before come back.”

That was reassuring… and harsh at the same time. She would never let that pass.

“Pointless mission? Tells me a man who drives from school to school giving kids a game to play as his job”

“Hmpf” Vainglory smirk. “That’s called recruitment, my dear, and it is much more productive than some random experiments on Moon’s surface that aren’t even contributing to global progression of our technology.”

“Oh, you think you’re quite an expert, aren’t you?”

“Definitely when it comes to simple pleasures”

“You’re getting close to the line W-”

Ringing noise interrupted Richerlieu's sentence cutting off this boiling discussion. Usually it was Shiro that kept peace between his partners. Just like a buffer who kept everyone in right place or was getting into action when things were getting to steamy. Now it seems that other items need to take on his role. Like the alarm clock.

“Gotta go, my shift just starts.”

“Charlène,...” Adam’s expression changed. It was gentle, warm, slightly worried.

“Yeah?”

“I will be waiting. Take care of yourself.”

The warmth she was familiar with poured from her heart and flooded her chest. Blush suffused lovely face of hers as she smirked at Adam.

“You too”

____________________________________________

Was it exciting? Definitely. Thrilling? Absolutely! Worth it? …

“Ground control, NISS initialized. Engines Configuration System - checked. Petrollum levels - checked. Inner air pressure - checked.”

Yet Takashiro was sitting here. Flipping the switches, navigating control panel, ticking off long list of conditions that needed to be checked before launching. Even though he was trying his best to focus on given tasks, his mind was running wild far away from the base. Looking at controls, he was only seeing this one empty gaze Adam tried to hide behind glasses. Blinking LEDs were imitating the redness of his eyes when he glanced at Shiro for the last time this morning. Even dark circles under his eyes found their way to somehow reappear in Shiro’s surroundings. Focus. Stop thinking.

Takashi couldn’t stand this anymore, so he closed his eyes. Ran away from the problem. Although he could never run away from his heart. It was always there, ready to punish him every time he was trying to make logical, responsible decision of his own. Like this time - projecting onto his closed eyelids a scene that happened just 3 hours ago.

Adam… looked exhausted. Truly drained from energy and life like never before. So fragile and delicate that Shiro wanted nothing else but to wrap his strong arms around his body and embrace him with love. Kiss his forehead, whisper to his soft hair comforting words and at the same time beg for forgiveness. Because it was obvious that Takashi was the only one responsible for his lover’s state. He was this sadist that was torturing Adam’s mind against his will overnight, while Shiro himself was sleeping peacefully prepared for mission. The guilt was sinking his heart. Sadness that he couldn’t stand hit him right in the stomach, when his beloved man gave him this cold, empty look and then just walked away too proud to admit that he still cared.

“...rogane?”

Echo of Sam’s voice brought him back from this hell.

“Yes?” straightening up in his seat, young pilot quickly checked surroundings.

“30 seconds left. We need your final confirmation, Lietuenant Shirogane. Are you alright?” Old Holt looked worried, since he never really witnessed Shiro being in emotional distress.

“Y-yes, yes I’m perfectly fine. Sorry.”

“He’s just channeling his inner Super Pilot to shot us through space in a blink of second!” Matt joked turning on final machinery to get the ship flying. Shiro cracked a smile.

“Yeah, exactly. Ground Control, I declare full readiness for launch”

“Roger that. Greenlight for Kerberos. Launch in 17 seconds.”

Why everyone was making it so hard to leave? Why they just couldn’t see things like he did? He was doing them a favour after all. Who would want to see him drowning in his deteriorating body…


End file.
